New chickens tearing up the nesting boxes

[pieville]

Hi all and thanks in advance for any help. I have four one year old chickens who are great layers. I recently got six additional chickens. I have had them in a “see and be seen” situation for the last two months, and now I am integrating them into the flock. Everything was going great until today when I arrived home and discovered that the little chickens had gone into the coop, pulled all the neat little nests out of the nesting boxes and put a hole in one of the eggs. I am afraid this will discourage my four older ones from laying. I can’t seem to get the six new ones to stay out of the coop. Any advice?

 

[lazy gardener]

Unless you have fencing to keep them from entering the coop, they will be entering the coop. You can put up a sign, but chooks can't read. (sorry, couldn't resist that word picture.) They are doing what pullets do. Exploring. It's normal for young pullets to explore the nest boxes, play with the bedding, and do exploratory pecking on the eggs. Replace the bedding in the boxes, give the pullets a bale of hay to play with (either in the coop or in the run. Simply remove the ties, and let the games begin.

 

[pieville]

Ah, that's a brilliant idea. I have a few extra bales in the barn -- I'll put one out there & give it a shot! Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[aart]

How old are the new birds?
They may be 'ready to lay'....or trying to hide/get away from the older birds.
How big is your coop and run?
Dimensions and pics would help immensely.

 

[pieville]

They’re only 9 weeks old, so not ready to lay — more ready to play. The run is 80’x20’ for 10 birds. In a couple weeks I’m having some tree work done and then will add an additional 600+ sq ft. There will be a whole new overgrown area for them to explore and clear.

The coop itself is only 5’x8’ with 5 nesting boxes, but generally my big girls only go in to lay & sleep. Even when we had 18” of snow this winter, they were outside.

I put a bale of straw out yesterday, and they did find it entertaining to tear it up. I think they’re bored, so can’t wait for the new area to be ready.

 

[RWise]

They may have seen the nesting material as food and ate it,,,